Brain-twister. The answer.

Looks like no-one has managed to crack the puzzle, so I got down to work. It took me quite some time,  mainly because I approached the task as if it were Riemannian geometry, but it turned out to be much simpler.
The first step is to rearrange the numbers to make 34 in each row, column and diagonal. You’ll see that numbers 1, 8 and 13, 7, 9, 2 stay put, while numbers 15, 5, 12, 10, 4, swapped places with numbers 11, 6, 16, 14, 3. So all you have to do is cut the square 1 along the red lines and switch pink and blue figures to form the square 2.

     

square 1  1 15 5 12 8 10 4 9 11 6 16 2 14 3 13 7

square 2 1 11 6 16 8 14 3 9 15 5 12 2 10 4 13 7

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Should we fear aliens? Part II: First Contact — Glad Hand.

Stephen Hawking in Zero Gravity (NASA)

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet.” “Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach. If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.” — Stephen Hawking.

Although I’ve already expatiated at length on the reasons why we should fear aliens, it turns out there’s yet another cause for alarm — our infinite fatuity and brainlessness. The other day I heard one of these stories on the news that make you wonder if it’s Orson-Wells’-recital-of–The-War-of-the-Worlds style hoax, or the powers that be are once again kidding the populace. In times of economic crisis, UN decided to splash out and assigned a Malaysian boffin to greet aliens on behalf of the entire humanity.

Does absolute Good and Evil exist?

Musings on the nature of Absolute Good and Evil.

"Are there, infinitely varying with each individual, inbred forces of Good and Evil in all of us, deep down below the reach of mortal encouragement and mortal repression — hidden Good and hidden Evil, both alike at the mercy of the liberating opportunity and the sufficient temptation?" — Wilkie Collins.

Absolute Good vs. Absolute Evil.
(Satan before the Lord,
Corrado Giaquinto.)

“In religion, ethics, and philosophy, the phrase, Good and Evil refers to the evaluation/judgement of objects, desires, and behaviours on a two-way scale, with one direction being morally positive ("good"), and the other morally negative ("evil"). "Good" is a broad concept but it typically deals with an association with life, continuity, happiness, and prosperity. Evil is simply defined as the opposite of Good. Depending on the context, good and evil may represent personal judgments, societal norms, or claims of absolute value related to human nature or to transcendent religious or philosophical standards.” (Based on Wikipedia definition)

Immanuel Kant

 “The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason. “ — Immanuel Kant.

 The big question is whether there is absolute Good and Evil, although it’s part of a bigger question — if so why? Whetstone for human spirit? For the thrill of it? Is it a local phenomenon or it’s valid for the rest of the universe(s)? But that’s like asking WHY God exists. Makes the mind boggle. I’m afraid we’ll have to settle for the answer 'Because He Does' in the foreseeable future.

The greatest con artist ever?

'In fact, to gull a fool seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man.'  — Giacomo Casanova.

A Teacher

 You can’t deny it takes a special talent to pull off a brilliant swindle. Believe it or not, but the following story really happened. To me it qualifies as one of the best scams of all times. This masterpiece of swiz took place in a remote village somewhere in the Far East in the late seventies.

One day the village school decided it was high time to give their pupils some fancy education, which came down to teaching them foreign languages.

For now unknown reasons they picked French, but the snag was that their chances of finding a French teacher in such a wilderness were as slim as of spotting a kangaroo in their local forest.

Unbelievably, though, they were in luck — a recently recruited history teacher happened to know some French, or so he claimed, and was happy to double as a French coach.

Breaking down the Bible Genesis, 4 The First Mourning.

Genesis 4:3

 'And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.'

Genesis 4:4

'And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:'

Can you trust organic food?

We are what we eat.

The answer is — can you trust humankind? Nothing created or done by these devil incarnates, aka humans, is 100% trustworthy, since human nature usually perverts everything. (Of course, I mean humanity in general, not all the individuals it’s made up of).

Organic products

You can’t possibly check whether, say, organic grains have been mixed with non-organic ones, or the organic seal is fake, just as you can never be sure where your conventional food comes from — they might use local packing for Chinese etc foodstuffs, they might be genetically modified, or grown near a nuclear cemetery etc, etc.

It’s an uphill battle.

How to lose weight (about 10 kilos) in five days?

Turns out it’s pretty simple, besides it won’t cost you a penny (no pills, no specific treatment or fancy therapies), but there’s a downside — it’s a bit tough.

 All you have to do is move house ....all by yourself, providing of course it’s no less than about 1 km (the upper limit is up to you) away from you actual abode. Literally.

That's how full your trolleys should look

Which means doing it without removals van, or any external help, just with a wheel barrow, supermarket trolley or, if you prefer the hardest way, any board with wheels. Mind that first you have to take your things down from at least the third floor and then probably drag it all up to at least the second floor without using the lift. Granted, you probably won’t be able to handle things like fridges, cookers or wardrobes, but the rest is within your reach.

Another absolute must is that it should be done in a hurry, so push your cart, supermarket trolley or whatever as fast as your fitness will let you and make about 40 trips each day. And don’t you dare stop to rest during the trips or have full meals in these five days.
Afterwards stick to a low-salt low-fat balanced diet to keep your so effortfully sculpted figure.

Trust me, it works. I know it for fact — the other day a friend of mine said no way she was paying removals company that much just to move her junk several streets away, in addition her car had just broken down, so she did it her way, that is, by hand. I have to mention, though, that she lives in a small town with no much traffic, I’m not sure you could pull it off in cities like New York or London.
A week later we could hardly believe our eyes when we saw her.

The moral of the story — sometimes stinginess really pays off.

Warning: don’t try this method if you have some medical condition!
Consult your doctor first.

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Great figures in opera? All gone.In Memoriam Cesare Siepi.

I’m kind of getting off the track here, but the other day I was having a casual conversation with a couple of friends on great opera singers of all times inspired by the recent death of Cesare Siepi which eventually ended in reflections on the demise of great figures in opera. Although with some delay I’d like to pay tribute to one of my favourite bass-baritones, because I owe moments of elevated joy to artists like him.

What can you say when a genius dies?

Bewail not life with its exhausting breath,

What’s life and death? But moan about the flame,

That over the whole creation blazed,

And parts into the night, weeping as it fades.

A. Fet (copyright © 2010 by Brainstorming Ideas)

Cesare Siepi

Brain-twister with answer.

1	15	5	12
8	10	4	9
11	6	16	2
14	3	13	7

A brain-teasing question this time. A 13-year old boy challenged us to an apparently simple riddle. I suspect he just couldn’t find the answer. Much to my shame, I’ll have to rack my brain for quite some time — I’ve never been on good terms with numbers.
Anyway, can you beat us to it?

Here goes the puzzle:

Cut this square in four parts and rearrange it so that the sum of the numbers in each column, each row and each diagonal equals 34.

What are the dangers of nanotechnology?

"Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers"  — Arthur Eddington.

Most scientists will harangue us about the highly acclaimed newfangled panacea — “nanotech”, that is basically controlling matter or building machines which could re-order matter on a molecular and atomic scale. It usually deals with 1 to 100 nanometre structures. The concept was first used by Richard Feynman to describe the possibility of manipulating individual atoms and molecules using a set of precise tools, which in plain language means we could take the building blocks of matter and create literally anything. That of course after we had got around certain problems, such as gravity losing ground to surface tension and van der Waals attraction, etc.

Breaking down the Bible. Genesis, 3 The Fall.

“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modelled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty." — Albert Einstein.

This is a crucial event in the book and history of mankind, because this is the point where all our misfortunes began...

Despite the fact that it should be taken as an allegory, something terrible must have happened. We became weak slavish mortals; lost all privileges and were ousted from the paradise.

The Fall.

(Capella Sistina. Michelangelo)

String Theory — The Music of The Spheres? M-theory (Superstring theory) and Brane cosmology.

String theory simplified and poeticised.

Wünschelrute
Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen
Die da träumen fort und fort,
Und die Welt hebt an zu singen,
Triffst du nur das Zauberwort.
(Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff)

Magic wand
Sleeps a song inside all things
Dreaming in the spellbound world,
That will waken up to sing,
If you sound the magic word.

(Proverbs. Sentence poem by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff)

Please don't copy without permission. Copyright © 2010  Brainstorming Ideas.)

String theory — science or philosophy?
This theory especially appeals to me because it’s based on a very musical idea — strings, and ‘music’, as Nietzsche put it, ‘is the true Idea of the World’ or in other words ‘world is materialised music’ (Schopenhauer).

This is what string theory is all about: the electrons, quarks and other particles are 1-dimensional oscillating "strings", possessing only the dimension of length. Their vibration determines the particles' flavour (quantum number of an elementary particle, which describes values of conserved quantities in the dynamics of the quantum system), charge, mass and spin. In addition, the superstring theory claims that a "supersymmetry" exists between bosons and fermions — force carriers and matter. But probably its most mind-boggling peculiarity is that such theory requires the existence of several extra unobservable dimensions — M-theory, for instance, puts forward eleven-dimensional space-time.

Quantum Entanglement Questions. Quantum Weirdness.

'We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.' — N. Bohr.

What I most love of quantum mechanics is that it is nondeterministic, which means that it’s generally doesn’t predict the outcome of any measurement with certainty. Instead, it just provides the probabilities of the outcomes, so that ‘measurements of a certain property done on two apparently identical systems can give different answers’ — to put it simply, the Truth is unfathomable. That’s how I’ve always perceived the universe and therefore life: governed by the uncertain definition inherent in its very core.

Quantum entanglement, also called the quantum non-local connection, is a property of a quantum mechanical state of a system of two or more objects in which their quantum states are linked together so that to describe one object you have to take into account its counterpart — even if they’re spatially separated.

Hawking Radiation and Black Hole Evaporation.

Bekenstein-Hawking radiation questions.

'There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature...'  "The philosophy of Niels Bohr" by Aage Petersen.

How does Hawking Radiation work?



In 1974, Stephen Hawking set forth a theory that due to quantum effects black holes should emit a thermal radiation with a black body spectrum. Actually, he drew on two soviet scientists’ work who claimed that rotating black holes should create and emit particles according to the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle. That means that black holes can lose mass and, if they spew out more matter than they gain, they might shrink, evaporate and eventually vanish.

This analysis is allegedly the first serious shot at a possible theory of quantum gravity, but there’s a catch — the existence of Hawking radiation hasn’t been proved so far. NASA launched a satellite to search for the expected gamma-ray flashes from the evaporating primordial black holes, and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is bent on creating micro black holes in order to observe their evaporation, or that’s the part they let us in on.

Casimir effect, vacuum fluctuations and zero-point energy.

Or what I make of it.

'Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.' — Albert Einstein.

It turns out a great number of science lovers seek simple explanation of abstruse scientific topics rather than techno-babble and a pile of mind-bending equations. As one great physicist said, if you can’t break a complex scientific question down so that even your granddad understands it, you yourself don’t understand it.

First, to put it simply, classical mechanics deals with macroscopic objects, that is, things visible to the naked eye, while quantum mechanics deals with the wave-particle duality of atoms and molecules. That said, according to quantum field theory (quantum description of a physical field), the Casimir effect is a physical force produced by quantised field.

Prophetic and Self-Fulfilling Dreams. The Interpretation and Meaning of Dreams.

We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.

W. Shakespeare. The Tempest, (Act 4, Scene 1). 

Hypnos — God of Sleep

Many people wonder how to interpret their dreams and if they really mean something. Well, dreams do have great significance to me and with good reason. I know from personal experience that there’s a kind of alternate reality we can only tap into when our conscience is turned off and instead our subconscious is unleashed.

Destiny vs Free Will.

'There is no purpose to life, but it’s not an accident.' — Richard Dawkins.

In Thornton Wilder’s THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY the characters were doomed to meet their deaths in the collapse of the bridge as a logical outcome of their lives and personalities. "Is there a direction and meaning in lives beyond the individual's own will?" was the question posed by the author, which is basically fate vs. free will. As a matter of fact, every time a number of people die or get injured in an accident a mind-boggling question raises its ugly head — did some superior force make it happen accidentally on purpose?

Some people believe there’s a cause for everything; others say it’s just a blind chance. I’m inclined to think that chance is an unperceived necessity.

Is Time Travel Possible? Science or Science Fiction?

'Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.' — A. Einstein

For most people time travel is a common plot device in science fiction, although I’ve always considered travel to the past a sort of Deus Ex Machina. Conversely, the possibility of time travel to the future is arguably deducible from special and general relativities based on the phenomenon of gravitational and time dilation linked to the speed of the observer.

Breaking down the Bible. (Genesis, 1 - 2) Creation of Man

“The light and spirit of the Divinity are the wings of the soul.” — Plato

 Tanach

No doubt Bible is a record of mainly myths and legends, some historical events, a bit of moral guidance and words of wisdom, but I wonder how much of its text was added by Pharisees and later Christian priests seeking to manipulate and enslave the uncultured masses, "survived the purging of texts considered to be heretical (either out of stupidity or in order to look after the clergy's mean interests) in the founding years of Christianity as a church", or was simply lost in translation. As an Italian saying goes: traduttore — traditore (a translator — a traitor).